Early goals from Gary Day and Ryan Carr gave the Robins a 2-1 lead into the break.

Further goals in the second half from Cam Cunningham and a second from Carr meant that Newcastle Benfield had a mountain to climb to get anything from the game.

And despite Paul Brayson’s consolation strike late on, the Robins were able to claim their second win over Benfield in three days.

After being taken to extra time and penalties in their midweek clash, Nash explained how he was forced into a number of changes.

“We have made five changes so we’ve been pretty bold with that,” said Nash. “People were playing slightly out of position as well but we have had tired legs after Wednesday as well as having people away.”

When asked for his thoughts on how important it was to start the second half strongly, especially after conceding a goal on the stroke of half time, Nash couldn’t hide his relief at doing something which has plagued his side all season.

“It was vital because we have been guilty of that before when we have had 2-0 leads but let the opposition back in.

In the second half, we have actually come out and missed two good chances through Gary and Cam but Cam’s goal was crucial in taking the game away from them,” he explained.

There was an unprecedented challenge which faced North Shields during this game as Newcastle Benfield had recently appointed striker Paul Brayson as interim manager after the removal of Tom Wade. Nash was keen to point out to his side before kickoff how the opposition might have reacted to this change.

He said: “We did say this before the game about that positive effect which could give some of those players a point to prove but they fielded the same team as Wednesday so there wasn’t any stuff that we didn’t know.”

One sour note for Nash was that on top of Greg Purvis and Adam Forster both being unavailable through injury, his troubles were increased when left back Jordan Summerly went off at half time with a hip injury.

“Losing Jordan at half time was unfortunate as it was an injury he had been struggling with on Wednesday but it is just part and parcel of the game,” said Nash. “Our options may be limited but we have just got to get on with it and do our jobs.”